With debate still raging on Condit's title win, fighters weigh in on UFC 143 result

Although a small cross section within the army of current UFC fighters, those reached by MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) supported Carlos Condit’s controversial decision over Nick Diaz at this past Saturday’s UFC 143.

That support ultimately boiled down what they saw was more effective aggression and a superior gameplan.

UFC 143 took place this past Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Its main card aired live on pay-per-view while preliminary-card fights aired on FX and streamed on Facebook.

Such a statement was repeated in various forms by several that spoke about the fight, which crowned Condit the new UFC interim welterweight title after judges ruled him the winner by scores of 48-47 and 49-46 twice.

“This isn’t a street fight,” said heavyweight Travis Browne. “If Diaz would have used his wrestling and taken Carlos down, held him down, and got him in those bad positions and made Carlos panic like he did in the fifth round, it would have been a totally different fight. I think it would have been a 50-45; he would have won every single round.”

Indeed, grappling came into play just once during the five-round fight. Although Diaz attempted to take Condit down on several occasions, he was only successful getting the fight down during the final frame, where he threatened the former WEC champ with a rear naked choke.

The bulk of the fight played out on its feet, where Condit (28-5 MMA, 5-1 UFC) kept a stalking Diaz (27-8 MMA, 7-5 UFC) off balance with kicks and evaded when cornered against the cage.

That prompted several fighters under the Zuffa banner to blast both the decision and Condit on Twitter after the fight. However, most that spoke today agreed that Diaz was aggressive, but far from successful in doing the kind of damage done in previous fights.

“If Diaz would have been landing, then I would say that it would go to the aggressor,” said featherweight Cub Swanson. “In a sense, it did look like Condit was running at times, but he was trying to get away from the cage. But he landed the majority. I would say on damage, I would weigh that heavier.”

Maynard applauded Condit’s deft use of the octagon in staying away from Diaz’s flurries.

“Obviously, if you check out the tapes, Nick Diaz is good in the pocket because he’s long and a lefty, so you’ve got to stay out of the pocket,” he said. “It’s not the best thing to watch, but it’s a sport. There are some boring NFL games, but it happens. Carlos scored more points. Everything landed flush. Nick had a couple flurries, but nothing big, so you’ve got to add the points. The FightMetric (statistics) prove it.

“Looking at Nick, I think the past two years, he really hasn’t fought anyone who’s had a plan. It’s like, well, I’m just going to go out there and fight, and [the Diaz brothers] are good at that. GSP is going to have a plan for Nick, too: Hit a couple of times, move off, he comes in, take him down, work position. Nick Diaz is tough and he fights hard, but when there’s that much at stake, why would you do that?

“It’s easy for people from their couches to say, ‘Carlos, what the [expletive].’ But it’s a title fight.”

Maynard attended the fight and said the consensus among fighters there was that Condit had pulled it off.

“If you look at the fight overall, it’s easy to say Diaz won the fight,” said lightweight Sam Stout. “But that’s not how an MMA fight is scored. It’s scored on a round-to-round basis, and if you look at the points, Diaz won the first two and Condit won the last three. I don’t know how the judges scored it 49-46.”

Stout said he scored it 48-47 for Condit for winning rounds 3, 4 and 5. Maynard gave Condit rounds 1, 3 and 4. Browne, meanwhile, had Condit winning rounds 2 through 4.

Not everyone was impressed by the new interim champ’s plan, however.

“Carlos was passive,” said lightweight Kamal Shalorus. “He didn’t fight. He would throw something and run away, and those punches were not really hard. Diaz was pushing the pace all the time. The judges were 100 percent wrong. I don’t know why they did that.

“Of course, Carlos threw some punches, but not like Diaz’s. I believe Diaz won.”

Rematch was the word in the minds of many after the fight, and UFC president Dana White said he was open to the possibility before the return of undisputed welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre, who is currently recovering from a torn ACL. St-Pierre has said he’ll be ready by November, but that’s far from guaranteed.

The fighters were lukewarm on that question.

“If people want that fight, then yeah,” Maynard said. “But if they don’t, I don’t really care. He won, that’s what the judges said, so what are you going to do?”

“I think it’s a good candidate for a rematch,” Stout said. “I don’t think it necessarily needs to happen immediately. I just came off a very close loss, and I’m not demanding a rematch right away.

“It’s part of the game. I’ve been on both sides of a lot of close decisions, and if you don’t want to get put into those situations, then finish the fight. Dana tells us every time, ‘Don’t leave it in the hands of the judges.'”

Of course, there was no guarantee history wouldn’t repeat itself. The first meeting wasn’t exactly a barnburner.

For those angered by the decision, the solution was to put Diaz to the front of the line again.

“I think they’re going to be a boring fight,” Shalorus said of a Condit/Diaz rematch. “I think they should put Diaz with GSP. Diaz is going to be a better fight.”

And in that, the debate over what’s exciting and what’s effective continues.

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